


Awaiting the Tooth Fairy

by gray_autumn_sky



Series: Second Chances [6]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 17:18:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7627135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gray_autumn_sky/pseuds/gray_autumn_sky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin and Hope are eager for her to lose her first tooth; Regina feels very differently about it.</p><p>Written for Cherish the Peanut Week on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awaiting the Tooth Fairy

Two days after her fifth birthday, Hope is a flash of pink as she runs excitedly toward Robin—grinning broadly as she bounds toward him, her red curls flying behind her. He catches her by the waist, scooping her up and settling her on his lap, tucking her messy red curls behind her ears. “Daddy, _look_!” She exclaims, sticking out her bottom lip as she pushes at her tooth with her tongue and wiggles it with her index finger. “Look, Daddy! It’s _loose_! One’s _finally_ loose!”

“Ahh, I see that,” Robin says, grinning as he examines the wiggling tooth. Hope leans up onto her knees so that they’re face to face. “It looks like _someone_ can expect a visit from the Tooth Fairy. And _soon_.”

“The Tooth Fairy?” Hope asks, her hand dropping away from her mouth as she looks up at him, blue eyes wide with curiosity.

“Sure, you know about the Tooth Fairy.”

But Hope shakes her head adamantly, red curls bouncing and swinging. Robin laughs gently and wonders how Henry and Roland have let this one slip by—they’ve told her all about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, all about the Elf on the Shelf who watches her behavior leading up to Christmas and the Groundhog who predicts the weather, and all the other mythical creatures that make a child’s life just a bit more interesting.

He kisses her forehead and readjusts her into a more comfortable position, settling his arms around her. “Well, the Tooth Fairy comes to visit children the night they lose a tooth.”

“Why?” Hope asks immediately, her voice eager.

“Well, she collects them,” Robin says with a chuckle, knowing he should have been more prepared when he started the story—aside from the basics, he knows little of this Tooth Fairy.

“Why does she collect _teeth_?” Hope is quick to ask, her nose scrunching, accentuating the smattering of freckles that lies across the bridge of her nose. “Why would anyone want someone else’s teeth?”

Robin’s brow furrows. “Oh, um…well, I suppose I don’t know that part.”

“We should ask her! When I lose my tooth, we should stay up all night and wait for her to come and ask her what she does with them!”

“Well, she won’t come if you’re not asleep,” Robin tells her easily, remembering how just a few weeks before she’d attempted to wait up for Santa Claus, having fallen asleep underneath the tree in an attempt to see him for herself—not because she wanted to prove his existence, but because she had questions about chimneys and reindeer and thought it’d be best to get her answers directly from Santa himself rather than ask her brothers for an umpteenth time.

“Oh,” she says, deflating a little as a frown forms over her lips. “But I want to _meet_ her.”

“That’s just not the way it works,” Robin says, feeling a tiny pang of guilt. “But you see, before you go to sleep, you have to tuck the tooth underneath your pillow. Then, the Tooth Fairy will come and take the tooth and leave you a surprise.”

“A surprise?” Hope asks, her blue eyes once more growing wide as she perks up. “What kind of surprise?”

“You’re just going to have to wait and see.”

“But that could be _days_ ,” Hope tells him, squirming impatiently. “Or worse! _Weeks_!”

Robin laughs and a grin stretches across his lips. “Well, there is a way to speed up the process.”

“Let’s do it!”

“Don’t you want to know what it is?”

“I don’t care,” she’s quick to say, again getting up to her knees and pressing her small hands into his shoulders. “Please, Daddy? _Please_? I want to see what kind of surprise the Tooth Fairy brings!”

He laughs again and lifts her off of his lap, and taking her by the hand as he leads her to the stairs. “This may hurt,” Robin warns, looking down at her. “But it won’t hurt badly. I promise.”

“That’s okay,” she says easily as they climb the stairs and she swings their joined hands back and forth.

He leads her into the bathroom and lifts her onto the counter, fishing around in the medicine cabinet in search of the dental floss. She smiles brightly when he finds it kicking her feet back and forth in anticipation as Robin carefully ties the floss around her loose tooth.

“There we go,” he says finally when the floss is tied. He picks her up and sets her down on the floor, unraveling the floss and cutting it when he reaches the door. Her brow furrows as she watches, curious about what he’s doing, but definitely not afraid of what’s to come. “Okay, Princess,” he begins as he ties the other end of floss to the door knob. “This is the part that might hurt a little. You have to stay exactly where you are, and I’m going to close the door.”

“And that’ll pull out my tooth?”

“I’ll do it fast, okay?”

“Okay,” Hope nods and takes a short breath, and a thin smile stretches over her lips. She closes her eyes and scrunches her face in preparation.

“Okay, on the count of three…one….two…”

“ROBIN LOCKSLEY, WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?”

Robin freezes, looking up to see Regina standing in the doorway with one hand against the frame of the door and the other settled on her very-pregnant stomach.  He grimaces and takes a breath, looking up at her with a sheepish grin.

“Please tell me,” Regina begins in a voice that is steady and cool, and completely terrifying, “that you are _not_ about to _rip_ something out of _my baby’s head_.”

“Busted,” Hope murmurs, the disappointment in her voice evident as she folds her arms over her chest and lets out an audible sigh.

Robin gets to his feet, shoves his hands into his pockets, his eyes softening as they meet Regina’s. “Well, love, she’ll only be the baby for a few more days.” Regina’s eyes widen and she glares at him; and he’s certain that if looks could kill, he would be a dead man. “Okay, not in the mood to joke,” he murmurs, as he looks back at Hope as she tries to pull the floss from her tooth.

“ _Why_ would you think this was a _good_ idea?”

“She has a loose tooth…”

“That will come out when it’s ready to,” she finishes, her voice still stern and her eyes still wide.

“She wanted to meet the Tooth Fairy,” Robin tells her. He smiles sweetly, but her demeanor doesn’t change. “Or at least, she wanted to try to.”

“The Tooth Fairy?” She asks in a low voice. “Oh, please, like the Tooth Fairy would come _here_.”

Robin blinks a couple of times—he can’t tell if she’s serious or joking, and he’s suddenly curious about this fairy, who up until that point, he’d figured was no more than a mythical being.

“OW!”

They both turn to see Hope holding up the piece of dental floss—a tooth dangling from it. She giggles and smiles, and they both laugh out as she pokes her tongue through the space where the tooth had just been.

“That barely hurt, Mommy,” Hope saying, again crinkling her nose. “But it feels… _funny_.”

Regina sighs and steps into the bathroom, reaching for a paper cup and filling it up with water, as Robin lifts Hope onto the counter. “Swish the water around until it stops bleeding, okay?” Regina says, her voice much softer than it was a moment before. She leans in and kisses the top of Hope’s head and combs her fingers through the little girl’s hair. And Robin smiles at the affection.

Spitting the water into the sink, Hope puts down the cup. “I want to go hide this under my pillow now.”

“Smile first,” Regina says. Hope smiles, pushing out her lips so Regina can see all of her teeth. Examining the newly vacated spot in her mouth, Regina nods. “Okay. It’s not bleeding anymore. Go hide your tooth.”

Hope hops off the counter and runs down the hall excitedly calling for her brothers to share her news; Robin laughs and turns to Regina, and he’s surprised to find tears welling in her eyes.                                  

“She lost her first tooth,” she says, struggling against her tears. Reaching for her, he slides his arm around her shoulders, and presses a soft kiss into her hair. “She’s growing up so fast.”

“It’s inevitable, love.”

“I wish we could slow it down.”

“But we can’t.”

“I know, but I _wish_ we could,” Regina murmurs as she rests her head on his shoulder. She cuddles into his side and he smiles, hugging her closer. “And just for the record,” she says, looking up at him with tears glistening in her eyes. “She’s _always_ going to be my baby.”


End file.
